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A federal judge refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging LG sold washers with a defect that causes them to become unbalanced.
Lead plaintiffs, Steve Marcom and Davis McGeown, claim in their class action lawsuit that LG knew of the defect, but sold the washers anyway.
The plaintiffs allege LG violated their warranty to consumers and also committed fraud by continuing to sell defective washers. LG also violated a number of state laws, according to the LG class action lawsuit.
Both plaintiffs say they purchased LG washers in 2013; however, the washers were affected by a defect that caused them to become imbalanced. Due to the defect, the plaintiffs claim one load of laundry could take upwards of five hours or more to complete.
LG was aware of the defect, say the plaintiffs, as shown by a service bulletin distributed by the company to dealers that same year as well as numerous customer complaints.
LG attempted to have the class action dismissed, arguing the plaintiffs had not adequately established that the company knew of the alleged defects. LG said the service bulletin should be disregarded because it would be bad policy for companies to face liability for an attempt to respond to problems. U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi disagreed with LG, however, and refused to completely toss the lawsuit.
“[The plaintiffs] have adequately pleaded that defendant knew of the imbalance defects before plaintiffs purchased their washing machines, and that said defects were material, yet defendant failed to disclose them,” noted the judge in her order.
The judge also pointed out that the plaintiffs alleged that LG knew or should have known about the defect given the online consumer complaints the plaintiffs included in their LG class action complaint.
“The bulletin also appears to describe both imbalance defects and gives guidance on what to tell consumers who complain of these defects,” said the judge in her order.
Judge Cecchi did trim class action claims made under New Jersey law and claims for injunctive and equitable relief.
According to the class action lawsuit, not only did LG know of the defect, it did not provide consumers a way to fix the problem. The plaintiffs allege that they both received communications from LG describing the defect, but it did not provide a fix.
“Here, as alleged, LG’s duty to disclose arose because it had ‘knowledge of a material fact not easily discoverable’ by Morcom before Morcom purchased his machine on February 9, 2013,” noted the judge in her order upholding the LG class action lawsuit claims.
The judge further noted that “a reasonable consumer would likely care to know that a washing machine would repeatedly stop in the middle of a cycle and take up to six hours to complete a single load.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph LoPiccolo of Poulos LoPiccolo PC and Randee M. Matloff of Nagel Rice LLP.
The LG Defective Washer Class Action Lawsuit is Steve Morcom, et al. v. LG Electronics USA Inc., Case No. 2:16-cv-04833, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
UPDATE: The LG Defective Washer Class Action Lawsuit was dismissed on April 25, 2019.
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55 thoughts onJudge Won’t Toss LG Defective Washer Class Action
What was the ruling on this law suit? this is crazy that this many people have the same problems. I can’t wait until I can afford to buy a new machine and it definitely won’t be an LG. Would love to know how much extra water and energy this company has caused so many people thinking they were buying an energy efficient machine.
My lg washer wt7600hwa just went out on me after just 1 1/2 yrs how do I get on this lawsuit denise
Same problem here – can’t afford a new one – and SHOULD NOT HAVE TO. So frustrated – trying to wash my sons uniform for work , used all the tricks – put other clothes in with it – tucked a towel over the top, etc., stayed close to try and catch it before it added more water again… ended up having to take uniform out dripping wet and wring it by hand and now I will be running my dryer extra long wasting even more power – beyond frustrated!!!
Please contact me if you have another class action for this.
I have had problems with my washer from the beginning, holes in clothes constantly, destroyed thousands of dollars worth of clothes! Bleach dispenser area completely rusted out and the list goes on! What can we do?
Same issue here how do I join the law suit, or do I need to start a new one?
Same here
I have the same issue. LG should refund my money for this defective machine
My LG top loadinge washer is only 3 years old and the unbalancing just started the last few loads. Is the class-action suit taking care of customers’ washers out of warranty?
I have an LG top loader bought in 2015 from Lowes. The disc on the bottom connected to the drum just broke off ..I phoned LG and even though it is under warranty (drum parts) they wanted 150.00 for the service tech and another 200 for labor???? what the hell is the warranty for? anyone else have this problem?
I have the same problem
I bought the LG clothes washing machine on November 11-2017 at $ 699, the disc inside the drum broke, I called LG on November 23-2020 thinking that it was part of the drum that had a guarantee they told me that it had no guarantee they will call To his lg representative technician, the visit was $ 89, he came home and said that it was the transmission and the repair cost $ 528 and that it was not under the LG warranty and that they gave me the warranty for 11 days, I had to buy one new washing machine, I still think that this has nothing to do with the transmission, because I took out the broken disk and put the washing machine to work and it did all its cycles normally, how could it work if it had a broken transmission, it is a scam between LG and Repair company do not know that you are not going to pay for a repair in the amount of a new washing machine, I want to know if we can recover the cost of the washing machine $ 699 to where do we have to claim and report? thanks Morella Bustamante email: morellab@yahoo.com
I have an LG top loader true balance with the same issue. Even with nothing in it, the drum will bang against the sides as soon as it starts to spin. Then refill with water and repeat. In one case when we were gone, it backed up or septic system into it house from filling and draining for 12 hours. It doesn’t matter if the load is out of balance or not. It’s the auto-balance system that does not work correctly. Very upset to waist money on an HE for it to waist more water and electric than my old beater that worked fine for years. .
I have the same problem since I got it brand new, at first it was only every now and then so I assumed it was a real unbalance problem, now it is almost every load, it can take up to 7 hours or more after trying to restart the machine few times. I totally hate laundry day because of this and it stress me out so much at the point that I start yelling at the machine. HATE IT. How can I join the claim? Is it too late?
Same problem with mine. Seems to be unbalanced at all times. Model number is wt1210cv. This washing machine has been a nightmare
I just threw out my LG top load washer that was 7.5 yrs old.
After we owned it for awhile, LG sent a notice that we were no longer supposed to use if for items like waterproof mattress pads, etc. Fortunately, we didn’t have that type of item, but one of the reasons we had purchased the machine was to have the option of doing that. Over the years, we had more and more unbalanced loads. We would constantly rebalance. We bought over $100 in parts to no avail. We tried fixes on the internet to no avail. LG should return my $ for this machine, the parts and the agony. It seems like other machines last 20-40 years.